AMBULANCES are being held up at Worcester's crisis-hit hospital emergency department because of blocked beds, putting patients at risk.

Hundreds of ambulances are being delayed for more than an hour, and some for more than five hours, at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester and the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch according to figures released by the West Midlands Ambulance Service.

At one point over Christmas and New Year nearly half of all ambulances, which serve the entire region, were at Worcestershire Royal Hospital. The trust reported 12 ambulances at Worcester and eight at the Alexandra Hospital, out of 26 ambulances.

Hospitals have struggled to cope with the volume of patients and the acuity of the levels of sickness they are encountering among their emergency patients.

A presentation by the ambulance trust's chief executive Anthony Marsh at the health overview and scrutiny committee (HOSC) revealed the enormous scale of the challenge caused by the pressure on beds.

Cllr Paul Tuthill, a Malvern Worcestershire County councillor, who attended the meeting raised concerns about the pressures at Worcester but welcomed the 'interesting and perceptive' comments made by Mr Marsh.

We have already reported how two people died on trolleys at Worcester hospital, one following a cardiac arrest and the other an aneurysm over the Christmas and New Year period.

Turnaround times, which have suffered in recent months, are the time it takes for an ambulance crew to deliver a patient into the clinical care of the hospital and prepare the ambulance for the next call.

This is supposed to take 30 minutes.

In November there were 85 turnaround delays of more than an hour at Worcester and 60 at the Alex.

This almost trebled at Worcester to 222 delays in December but there were fewer delays at the Alex (36) that month.

In January so far, up until close of play on Tuesday, there were 113 such delays at Worcester and 45 at Redditch.

The longest delay at Worcester was five hours and 24 minutes and the longest at the Alex was four hours and 37 minutes according to papers supplied to HOSC.

The average from the time of the ambulance's arrival to the time the crew is ready to depart was 33 minutes at both hospitals.

The delays have been blamed largely on lack of beds when a hospital is unable to accept a patient due to lack of space.

An ambulance service spokesman said: "As ambulance crews are delayed waiting to offload patients then they are not available to respond to other treble nine calls which presents a risk to those patients that we have not yet reached.

"We will continue to work with hospitals to find solutions to reduce the number of delays in patient handover."

A spokesman for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust which manages both hospitals said: "We have robust plans to deal with such demand and partners across the NHS – including West Midlands Ambulance Service - have supported us in ensuring that patient safety and emergency care is maintained.

“These pressures have unfortunately led to patients waiting longer than we would aim for, however all A&E patients continue to be seen and treated in order of clinical priority. Our focus continues to be on providing safe emergency care.”